Ducks win second straight, beat UW 78-71

The “energy-giver”, as his coach calls him, was back at it for the Ducks. Trailing Washington by three points at halftime with the late-season run he predicted this week in danger, senior point guard Johnathan Loyd huddled up his team before they went back on the floor at halftime.

“I was saying ‘Go out there and whatever you do, play as hard as you can’,” Loyd said. “Don’t worry about anything else. Go hard and we will be fine.”
The Ducks scored the first 10 points of the second half and never trailed again because they shot 16-for-24 from the field during the final 20 minutes to defeat the Huskies 78-71 Wednesday night in front of 6,792 at Matthew Knight Arena. It was the 90th career win for Loyd, who broke the school record set by E.J. Singler.
“Teams need energy-givers and Johnny Loyd is that,” said Oregon coach Dana Altman, who celebrated his own milestone with his 500th victory. “He has given energy every day for four years. When we are losing, he still comes to practice bouncing around.”
Loyd got the Ducks bouncing around, particularly sophomore guard Damyean Dotson, who made all five of his shots in the second half and followed up each one with fist pumps and shouts of emotion. Dotson scored 12 points in the second half to equal his season high with 17 points.
“I’ve been working on my shots a lot, getting in the gym before the game and off days working on it,” Dotson said. “I felt like it would come one of these days. I did feel pretty hot.”
Just about all the Ducks had that feeling as Mike Moser made 8-of-12 shots to lead the way with 20 points and Joseph Young was 7-for-12 to finish with 18 points. Oregon shot 56.9 percent from the field, its best mark in a conference game this season.
“We were feeding the hot hand,” Moser said.
Even some plays that didn’t go as planned worked out for the Ducks, including the biggest basket of the night from Moser. Oregon led 73-70 when Moser had the ball near the free throw line and drove to the hoop for a lay-up while being fouled and converted the free throw to put Oregon ahead 76-70 with 1:30 to go.
“I kind of broke it off and did my own thing and it worked out,” Moser said. “We were running flex and somebody was in the wrong spot, but it worked out pretty good.”
Perris Blackwell made 1-of-2 free throws for the Huskies with 1:07 left before Oregon turned the ball over on a shot-clock violation with 31 seconds left. Mike Anderson missed a three-pointer for the Huskies and Loyd grabbed the rebound before making two free throws to seal the win.
“It’s huge, we get a couple days off, get a second wind,” Moser said as the Ducks prepare to face Washington State Sunday after winning two straight for the first time in nearly seven weeks. “It gives us energy going into the last game of the weekend. It will be big for us.”
The Ducks (17-8, 5-8) remain in 10th place in the conference, but are just one-half game out of seventh.
After losing three games by two points in a nine-day stretch, Oregon has come through down the stretch in back-to-back wins over Oregon State and Washington. OSU got within two points late on Sunday before the Ducks pulled away for a 10-point win. The Huskies tied the Ducks with just over nine minutes to go, but Oregon never fell behind the rest of the way.
“They stayed resilient,” Altman said. “The seniors have tried to lead and it is important to those guys to finish strong. I like the way they handled it.”
Oregon held Washington’s C.J. Wilcox, the third-leading scorer in the conference, to less than half his average with nine points. He was 2-for-8 from the field, including 1-for-4 on three-pointers.
“The plan was for me and Jason (Calliste) to try and deny him the ball, limit his shots,” Dotson said. “We tried our hardest not to let him get going.”
With Wilcox struggling to get a shot, Washington (14-13, 6-8) went inside during the first half as Blackwell and Desmond Simmons each scored 10 points to help the Huskies get 20 points in the paint while taking a 39-36 lead at halftime. Those two combined for nine points in the second half and the Huskies had just 10 in the paint as Oregon outscored Washington 42-32 in the final 20 minutes.
Washington took 24 shots in the second half just like Oregon, but made only 10 and the Huskies scored one point in the final 2:33.
“Our defensive intensity picked up in the second half,” Altman said. “It was different from the first half and that was a big factor for us.”
Moser converted a three-point play to start the second half and tie the game 39-39 and then Loyd drove for a basket. Dotson hit a jumper and Young made a three-pointer to put Oregon ahead 46-39.
The Huskies tied the game 60-60 when Wilcox made two free throws with 9:11 to go. Young answered with a reverse lay-up and Dotson converted a three-point play to put the Ducks up 65-60 and Washington never got closer than three points the rest of the way as Altman and Loyd celebrated milestone victories.
“It makes you reflect,” Altman said of his 500th win, for which he got a game ball in the locker room. “Twenty-five years is a long time. I have had good assistants, good players, and worked at very good schools.”

Steve Mims covers Oregon football, men's basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. He has been a sportswriter at the paper since 1999 and covered high school sports while also reporting on Oregon football in the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl as well as men's basketball during their Elite 8 run in 2007 and trip to the Sweet 16 in 2013.